Book-cover



Patented May 2, I899.

E. D. DOUGLAS.

BO 0 K G 0 V E 8.

(Application filed Sept. 2, 1897.)

(No Model.)

Wimesses UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ELLA D. DOUGLAS, OF MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

BOOK-COVER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 624,195, dated May 2, 1899.

Application filed September 2, 1897- Serial No. 650,326. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern..-

Be it known that I, ELLA D. DOUGLAS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Manchester, in the county of Hillsborough and State of New Hampshire, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Book-Covers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates more especially to medium and large size books of most any character. Many books are too cumbersome to handle conveniently and often too heavy to hold up to the proper distance from the eyes for any length of time.

The object of my invention is to provide a bookbinding from which sections of one or more chapters may be detached, so as to make it easy to read while lying down, if desirable, and replaced when another portion of the book is desired. This may be accomplished in various ways, while retaining all the substantial elements of my invention-41. 6., the mechan ical details may vary, so long as sections of the book may be detached and replaced at will, without in any way disturbing the remaining portions.

To carry my invention into efiect, I divide up a book which is to be bound as nearly as possible into equal parts of the thickness desired for the detachable portions, sewing and gluing them asif each section was to form a separate book, and to the glued backs of said sections is securely attached a metal strip or strips, from which projects at or near each end of said section a small tongue or perforated eye,these latter fitting into and being properly secured to either a corrugated or slotted piece of metal fastened within the outer stiff cover of a book and taking the place of the so-called spring-back.

The invention will be fully set forth in the following specification and claims and clearly illustrated in the drawings accompanying and forming a part of the same, of which-- Figure 1 represents a broken end view of a book as when opened, Fig. 2 being an elevation of my improved metal back, which in this instance is made up of hinged sections, each section being slotted to receive the metal tongues or eyes of the detachable sections of the book. Fig. 3 represents a broken perspective view of one of the detachable sections of A is the stifi cover of a book, to which is secured my improved metal back B, which may be formed of a single piece of metal, or it may be hinged together, as at bin Fig. 2. Slots may be formed in the top and near the lower end orbottom of said back B, as at C in Fig. 2, and the lower slots willhave their upper end enlarged, as at c, for the reception of tongues of the book-sections, or I may make the metal back of corrugated form, as shown in Fig. 4, in which case the lower slots only will be required, as shown in Fig. 5, the detachable book-section being placed in proper position by being pressed laterally against the metal back B until the lower of the tongues 11 of the section D shall have entered one of the corrugations c of the metal back B, when the book-section D may be pushed down, which enters the upper of the tongues d in said corrugations 0'. By perforating the metal back B at proper points to receive the tongues d, which might be perforated, a wire passing through said perforated tongues could be used to secure the detachable sections D in the metal back; but I prefer the constructions shown and described.

Having described my improvements, what I claim is- 1. The combination with a flexible back provided with longitudinally-disposed slots arranged in transverse series at or adjacent to its opposite ends respectively, of a plurality of detachable book-sections provided respectively with tongues adjacent to their opposite ends, designed to engage the slots in the back, substantially as specified.

2. Thecombination with a back composed of hinged sections provided respectively at or adjacent to their opposite ends with slots, of detachable book-sections provided with tongues designed to engage the slots, substantially as specified.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ELLA D. DOUGLAS.

\Vitnesses:

J. B. THURSTON,

GEORGE A. WAGNER. 

